Thought social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace were just for teens and young adults? Not so. The CIA plans to release a similar service on Sept. 22 for the entire U.S. intelligence community, says CNN. Called “A-Space,” the service could go a long way towards facilitating communication both horizontally across various agencies as well as vertically within them–one of the most important recommendations that came out of the 9/11 Commission Report (See 13.3–Unity of Effort in Sharing Information).
CNN interviewed Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis. “In the past,” said Wertheimer, “whoever captured … video or captured information about the video kept it in-house.” The trick is to get it out of the house and circulating so that everybody’s up to date.
Source: www.facebook.com
The service uses the same “friend network” philosophy that Facebook and MySpace support. That Web 2.0 can be so powerful as to jumpstart reform within the intelligence community says a good deal.
With any luck, other countries will seek to emulate the U.S.’s model, perhaps someday even helping to devlop a worldwide A-Space where everybody is on the same network. Then Ethan Hunt would be able to chat up James Bond anytime.
Posted by Brian Fung 
